John B. King Jr. is the 15th chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest comprehensive system of public higher education in the United States. Prior to his appointment as chancellor, King served as president of The Education Trust, a national civil rights nonprofit that seeks to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps for students from preschool through college. King also served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as the 10th U.S. secretary of education. Upon tapping him to lead the U.S. Department of Education, Obama called King “an exceptionally talented educator,” citing his commitment to “preparing every child for success,” and his lifelong dedication to public education as a teacher, principal, and leader of schools and school systems. While serving in the Cabinet, King worked to simplify the financial assistance process, oversaw federal investments in evidence-based strategies to increase college completion rates, and advocated for the president’s America’s College Promise proposal, which called for creating a federal-state partnership to make attendance at community colleges free and investing in scaled wrap-around services to support every student on their path to academic success.